Elina Svitolina announces end of marriage to Gaël Monfils

Elina Svitolina has announced the end of her marriage to Gaël Monfils in a post on her Instagram account on Monday, 19 October. “This is the most difficult thing I have ever had to share”, wrote the world number six, who added that “with time, I came to understand that I need to find my way back to myself and that I cannot do that within our marriage”.

The message continued: “Gael has seen it all. He never let go of my hand. Our marriage is ending, but our family is not. We will always be Skai’s parents, side by side, at every step of her life.” The couple married in July 2021; their daughter Skai was born at the end of 2022. Svitolina ruled out any search for blame (“please know that there is no one to blame here”) and pointed to the toll of the war in Ukraine, having already stepped away from the tour last year for emotional reasons.

The tour’s most followed couple

Together since 2019, Svitolina and Monfils were followed far beyond their results. The Spanish journalist José Moron put it plainly: “Gaël Monfils and Elina Svitolina were the most popular couple in the tennis world today. I was not expecting this.”

Two weeks after Monfils called time

The timing invites questions. Monfils brought his career to an abrupt end on 5 October, a retirement confirmed by the ITIA on the 14th. L’Équipe reads Svitolina’s post as shedding light on the “personal reasons” that pushed the Frenchman to stop earlier than planned, while We Love Tennis stresses that no link between the two announcements has been confirmed.

Monfils, 40, has said nothing publicly since his wife’s announcement. Svitolina, 32, remains world number six, and nothing in her message points to another break from the tour.